Fitting Boxes

Recession or not, its time to bite the bullet and hit the shops with a deflated wallet for some desperately needed essentials!

Luckily stores are in permanent sale mode but as a cautious shopper I still like to try before I buy. That's the beauty of ready-to-wear.

I still hate the dreaded fitting room though.
Often a tortured honesty box of questions and reasoning, the environment itself is part of the problem.

Doors or curtains- the ultimate pretense of privacy. Whether its calico, velvet or a solid cubicle door, it never stops pesky and bored sales assistants from trying to entice me out.

Mirrors or lack of them! Once when trying on a salmon dress in an ill-lit tight cubicle, I concluded I could pass for a skinless sausage- pale pink is definitely not my colour. Suffice to say, I didn't buy it.

Without a cubicle mirror, its a complete guess. Another ploy to entice you out of the fitting room to see the result in the large store mirror and involve the sales assistant.
Next shop please!

Hooks can be rare or plentiful.
In Farmers' revamped fitting rooms, there are slogans above hooks as an organisational tool for the flustered shopper. "Definitely", "Maybe" or "Next Time?" are a rather cynical ploy.
I'd like it better if they added a "What was I thinking?" hook. I'd be tempted to put every hanger on it to start with.

Lighting makes a difference to how you look- tired, puffy or annoyed or all three. It also reminds you what kind of shop you're in and the price tag, the brighter big chain store or the low and atmospheric boutique.
A small mercy is the bigger the store chain, the bigger the "honest shopper" sign detailing the maximum of 3 garments in rooms at one time and camera surveillance.

Try before you buy = take it or leave it. At the end of the fitting session you can walk out, put them all on the reject rack or make polite comments to the assistant that it didn't suit. I love ready-made.

I'm not sure though if I'll ever get over feeling like I've tried to get changed in a sleeping bag, just to expand my wardrobe.

Just say No

After nearly losing my mind to a terrible head cold this week, I decided I need another scarf. So went wool shopping in Spotlight, I have no idea how to knit just cross-stitch so this was a Gran-type project.

After finding the wool and a free pattern, waiting at the counter and then being redirected to another counter, I was ready to go home.
Its easy to become dazed and confused in Spotlight, the lights are bright and there is so much craft on offer, you could easily overdose.

Of course the salesman was having a great chat with the customer in front. As previously mentioned, I'm not that fussed with small talk in a retail environment, its completely pointless. I'm not here to have a warm and fuzzy experience, its a means of completing a transaction.
So he finally serves me and begins with the questions...have you got a VIP card?

I feel like giving him his beans that I don't want a trashy reward card, but just say no.
He follows up quickly with do you want one? No. No to every one of his pointless questions and his explaination of all the benefits.
Who cares, I just want to buy this wool and I don't care if its on sale through the VIP card.
He then asked if I wanted $1,000 dollars. I'm definitely not in a joking mood by now so say no to that too. He said he had been waiting all day for someone to say no, he certainly wasn't respecting me for it!

He finally asks if I want a bag, so I say yes- there are 8 balls of wool! He is clearly shocked and then pulls out the smallest bag in history to stuff them into.
He says I sound like a mother, should I be offended or flattered?

We all have the power to say no, why not exercise that right now and then?

Internal Soundtracks

When mp3 players hit the market, columnists and commentators flooded media outlets with interest pieces.
One article that stuck in my mind referred to how users with personal soundtracks were distancing themselves from normal environments, therefore not experiencing life.
Surely this is the point of mp3 players, its escapism with a mix tape. Walking to work while being at a concert so to speak makes the activity half bearable.

Unfortunately not all situations lend themselves to escapism. Grandma visiting, at lectures and performances isn't the greatest time to put your earphones on. You're there to experience something rather than escape it.
In manufactured environments like supermarkets and retail, they provide a selected soundtrack to encourage customers to linger, so an mp3 player isn't essential.

But it has become a addiction for some, a daily coping mechanism and is the ultimate 'don't talk to me' sign.

Recently I saw a mature retail customer only take out her headphones to deliver an instruction to staff before replacing her headphones.
Maybe she was tired of interacting in general but still it almost devalues a sales assistant, making them a means to the end rather than an actual person.

Life seems to be a continual flow of interaction with others, it reminds me of a row of ants who seem to communicate with every ant coming in their opposite direction. It pains me to say hello to every person on a walking track but it has to be done to remain half polite.

I wonder if headphones are really limiting our experience of the world or are they a necessity to cope with the daily grind of people, situations and activities?

Credit crunch

Its Christmas time again and there is the usual stressful hysteria amongst shoppers. How can we enjoy shopping leisurely amongst the carol singers, festive decor and the repetitive Christmas songs loop, when our wallets are tight and there is a concrete deadline.

To add to this hysteria, retailers are tempting one and all with their large sales, turning us all into bargain hunters prematurely.

Retailers are the beggars on the street this festive season- desperate for coins and attention. Usually they are the smug old misers, gloating with goods at ridiculously high prices until they can pity us post-Christmas and ply us with their old and damaged stock.

For anyone working in retail with bosses determined to turn a profit in such a competitive market and reduce the shoplifting rate, the number one rule has become customer service.

There are certain stores I chose solely for their lack of customer service. You can browse freely without the constant 'Can I help you Madam?" or thanking me for coming in.
These shops are becoming increasingly thin on the ground.

My friend and I were in Warehouse Stationery and we saw an ex-classmate who ignores us every time we go in there. She actually grunted "hi" to us when we entered the store, which was amazing but also showed the strength of the customer service concept.

I do love the programmed nature of customer service though, due to its sheer predictability.
"Have a nice day" when it is obviously night. "Would you like a bag"- the planet is dying and I'm already dragging 40 bags, but sure what the heck.
Even "Merry Christmas" is completely hollow at this time of year.
Sugar sweet conversation is sometimes hard to take, that means I actually have to think of a response when I am mentally and physically exhausted from shopping.

It feels like a waste of good oxygen, which makes the self-service checkouts appealing. Unfortunately they loudly rap you over the knuckles if you make a mistake. Just because I don't want to put the item in the provided bag, doesn't mean that I don't understand the instruction.

Oh well its only a few more days. Then we can become real bargain hunters, attacking retail junk sales like rapid dogs on boxing day with the money we saved in the pre-Christmas sales.